C
Cliff Galiher
Problem: (the short-short-short version):
Environment: Win2k3 SP2 file-server, Vista SP1 clients, AD domain with
roaming profiles. Office 2007 SP1 is installed. Offline files is enabled on
a share by group policy.
Steps to reproduce: A pre-existing excel 2003 file is present on a share
that is available offline. A user WITH A ROAMING PROFILE is logged into a
vista client (yes, the roaming profile seems to make a difference)
1) Right click on the file, view properties, hit the offline files tab. The
file is online.
2) Now open the file in excel 2007. Observe that Excel opens the
file in compatibility mode. Right click on the file again, check status,
and
the file is OFFLINE.
3) Make a change and close the file (saving the change.) Check file status.
Still offline. Wait a half-hour. Check again. STILL OFFLINE (not even
background syncing!)
There are two problems as I seem them:
1) Another user can open an already open file WITHOUT A WARNING that the
file is in use. Excel 2003 used to warn that the file could be opened
read-only. Compatibility mode SHOULD be emulating this behavior (or it
isn't really compatible!)
2) Even if problem #1 isn't resolved, it is unreasonable to expect end-users
to manually sync after opening and closing a file.
Bottom line, upgrading to Office 2007 killed a feature we rely on in our
environment. Office 2003 didn't have this problem. Excel 2007 with native
..xlsx doesn't have this problem. It seems to be a bug in Excel 2007's
compatibility mode. Thoughts?
-Cliff
Environment: Win2k3 SP2 file-server, Vista SP1 clients, AD domain with
roaming profiles. Office 2007 SP1 is installed. Offline files is enabled on
a share by group policy.
Steps to reproduce: A pre-existing excel 2003 file is present on a share
that is available offline. A user WITH A ROAMING PROFILE is logged into a
vista client (yes, the roaming profile seems to make a difference)
1) Right click on the file, view properties, hit the offline files tab. The
file is online.
2) Now open the file in excel 2007. Observe that Excel opens the
file in compatibility mode. Right click on the file again, check status,
and
the file is OFFLINE.
3) Make a change and close the file (saving the change.) Check file status.
Still offline. Wait a half-hour. Check again. STILL OFFLINE (not even
background syncing!)
There are two problems as I seem them:
1) Another user can open an already open file WITHOUT A WARNING that the
file is in use. Excel 2003 used to warn that the file could be opened
read-only. Compatibility mode SHOULD be emulating this behavior (or it
isn't really compatible!)
2) Even if problem #1 isn't resolved, it is unreasonable to expect end-users
to manually sync after opening and closing a file.
Bottom line, upgrading to Office 2007 killed a feature we rely on in our
environment. Office 2003 didn't have this problem. Excel 2007 with native
..xlsx doesn't have this problem. It seems to be a bug in Excel 2007's
compatibility mode. Thoughts?
-Cliff